Supreme Court: Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud was forced to ask the security services to remove a Supreme Court lawyer during the hearing of a series of petitions against NEET irregularities on Tuesday. “I have served in the judiciary for the last 24 years. I cannot allow lawyers to dictate procedure in this court,” the CJI told lawyer Mathews Nedumpara. These comments came after Nedumpara continued to address senior advocate Narendra Hooda while filing a response to the arguments of the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA). Nedumpara rejected CJI Chandrachud’s request to speak after Hooda and said, “I am the most senior here.” Reacting to his statement, the CJI said, “Mr Nedumpara, I warn you. You will not speak to the gallery. I am in charge of the court.” However, when Nedumpara continued his attack, the CJI told his staff: “Call security… take it back.”
“I have seen it since 1979,” Nedumpara said, to which the CJI replied: “I may have to release something which is not appropriate.” After the conversation, Nedumpara left the court and Hooda continued his reply, arguing that the sanctity of the exam has ended and only figures are being thrown in the court. “The whole world is watching, the paper has been leaked, no mobile phones have been found… if even 1,000 are beneficiaries, the exam will have to be held again,” he argued. The apex court is hearing several petitions, including one seeking re-examination of the controversial NEET-UG on grounds of question paper leak and other malpractices. During the day-long arguments on Monday, the court faced acrimony over a physics issue. It was argued that the question had two correct answers and one group of examinees, who gave a particular answer out of the two correct answers, got four marks. Some lawyers also said that there were three groups of applicants and one group got minus five marks for the correct answer, another got four marks for the second correct answer, and the third group comprised those who left out the answer due to lack of knowledge or fear of getting negative marks. The court was told that this would have a significant impact on the merit list of selected candidates.
